Eric's 9th Birthday

Today is Eric's 9th Birthday! I can't believe my youngest baby is 9! His first choice for a birthday breakfast was IHOP, but since we planned on going to Austin today to visit my cousin Rachael and her family, we didn't have enough time to go to IHOP. His second choice was Starbucks. Interestingly, Facebook reminded me that for several years, he has had breakfast at Starbucks on his birthday.

Today he had the Bacon Gouda Breakfast Sandwich and a Vanilla Bean Frappucino with no whipped cream. He usually has the blueberry scone and "shares" the Bacon Gouda Breakfast Sandwich that either Patrick or I order. Now he can finish the whole breakfast sandwich by himself. He also had a blueberry scone at home waiting for him. I used my "sweet receipt" yesterday to get the blueberry scone since I was able to use my Starbucks receipt from the morning to use after 2pm to get a bakery treat for $1.

When we got back home, Eric wanted to open presents. By that time, Alex had gotten up and gotten washed up. Natalie was still in her pajamas, but she was more awake than when we left to go to Starbucks.

I hardly use my "big camera" anymore. It's just so much easier to use my iPhone to take photos and video plus it's always with me. I wanted better pictures, though, so I took a few with the "big camera". I stacked up Eric's gifts and had him stand behind them. He decided to wave at one point, and I decided that the expression on his face was more genuine instead of the usual posed grin, so I kept the photo.

My sisters and Mom ordered gifts from Amazon, as we often do for each other, but we would rather spend our money on the present and not the wrapping paper, so we ship our gifts unwrapped. Last night, I wrapped all the gifts that had arrived for Eric, and that's why they are all wrapped with the same Avengers wrapping paper. I ran out of wrapping paper when I had one more gift to wrap (our gift to Eric), so Patrick got a gift bag for me and we put the present in there.

These are the gifts he opened today:

Lolo and Lola--Lego Jurassic Park Dilophosaurus Ambush
Cynthia and family--Harry Potter shirt (pictured), and Kylo Ren electronic lightsaber
Melissa and Emily--Lego Star Wars Resistance Troop Transporter
Us--Lego Star Wars Battle on Takodana

In this photo, Eric is modeling the T-shirt that he got from Aunt Cynthia and her family. The writing says, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." That is a phrase from the Harry Potter books that they have to say in order for the Marauder's Map to reveal where the characters are located. Cynthia said that Eric is "always good, so the shirt is pretty ironic".

Alex commented while I was taking this photo that Eric could hold the T-shirt on himself instead of just balancing the T-shirt on his chest. Eric got a kick out of this shirt because he has been plowing through the Harry Potter books lately--he is now on Book 7, the final book.

After we opened presents, we had a little time, then we left for Austin. I'll put those details in another blog post in the next couple of days or so. After we got back this afternoon/evening, we went to Chili's for dinner--Eric's choice. I was able to convince Alex to pose for this photo, just after he had been tickling Eric--that's why the smiles are so big. I love this photo of the two of them. We were missing Anthony and his friend Alejandro, Eric's "other brother", who usually joins us for Eric's birthday dinner. Alejandro is currently studying in Italy this semester and having a lot of fun.

When we got home, Eric played with his new lightsaber (together with his other Bladebuilder lightsabers) and the Lego Jurassic World Dilophosaurus Ambush set. He finished building that set before he went to bed tonight. He seemed to be pretty happy with his birthday, and I'm thankful for that.